Happy Almost Halloween!
My favorite author is Brandon Sanderson, and he writes so many amazing books, with the majority of his series taking place in his Cosmere universe, with crossovers between different series. They're just fun books to read and reread, because then you notice crossovers that you might not have noticed before.
In one of his series, the Stormlight Archive, that manifest in the physical world in a more minimal way but exist in complete form in another overlapping realm called the Cognitive realm. There are multiple types of spren, each with their own unique characteristics and associated magic, and one of the characters in the book is a spren called Pattern. Pattern is a type of spren called Cryptics, that exist in the physical world as a bunch of swirling lines in constantly shifting patterns, and in the Cognitive realm these constantly shifting patterns exist as the spren's head and they have black pointy bodies wearing long black robes. If that sounds complicated, see this picture of Cryptics from one of the books.
My daughters and I went to a fantasy/science fiction/comic convention (like Comic Con) earlier this month, as I wrote about in the post about my daughter's Nimona cosplay. I spent a lot of time, energy, and money on both my daughters' costumes, but I wanted to do something for myself as well. However, I didn't want to spend too much time, energy, or money. In thinking of ideas, it hit me that I could probably make a Pattern costume easily, and so I settled on that.
Then a few days beforehand, when I was doing the last bit of shopping for my daughters' costumes, I decided to finally get to work on my own costume. In a craft store I bought a roll of black crafting foam for approximately $3. I bought a large sheet of some really thick paper for about $3 as well. I think it's called pressboard.
All set, right?
I wasn't taking into consideration just how complicated the pattern for Pattern's swirls was, and it wasn't going to be easy to just draw them by hand. I was trying to figure out the best way to draw them and one of my kids suggested using a projector. I'd completely forgotten that I purchased a projector during Covid so we could have family movie nights, so that was terrific.
I looked at the different designs and chose one that I thought would be easiest to draw while still being clearly Pattern.
I taped the pressboard to the wall, connected the projector to my computer, and adjusted the position of the projector so that it would make the image I'd be tracing the right size for the pressboard. I then traced along the outside of the shape with marker, and my daughter helped me.
Once that was finished, I used a box cutter to carefully cut out the lines I'd drawn.
Then it was time to glue the foam onto it. Slight problem. The shape I'd cut out was a little bit larger than the foam was wide, which meant I needed to cut some off the length and glue it onto the sides, but those little bits kept falling off.
I used super glue to glue the foam to the design and then ran out of one type of glue, so then switched to another, which I didn't realize was leaking out the back, and it made a big mess. It was very hard to work with, to only put glue on the pressboard and cover it all the way so that I could then attach it to the foam but I managed it, even if my table and hands and cutting board were covered in glue.
Once it was dry, I cut the foam with a box cutter along the lines. After that, I glued down the edges that weren't attached well enough, and then used the box cutter to cut just the pressboard that was visible when looking at it from the foam direction, making sure to not cut any of the foam.
Last, I had to figure out how to attach it to my face. I had the great idea to attach it to my glasses, and then wasn't sure where to actually put it on my face so I could still see through it without needing to cut holes for my eyes (and nose potentially), but realized if I put the glasses low enough down I could still see through the holes between the lines, even if my vision was partially obstructed. I made sure to use my old glasses that were not multifocals since I knew that with only part of the lenses uncovered I couldn't use multifocals that require you to look out of specific parts of the lenses.
I placed the glasses lens down on my Pattern pattern (see what I did there?) and then tied it in place using black thread. While I could wear it that way, it was heavy enough that it started slipping down my nose, so I tied some elastic onto the arms of the glasses to go around the back of the head. This was mostly fine but throughout the convention it would occasionally slip off so then I secured the elastic to the arms with some duct tape.
I wore my mask with a long black dress with long sleeves that I had (from when I dressed up as Morticia) since it was the closest to the long black robes that the Cryptic spren wore.
The convention was great and people walked up to me a lot saying "Awesome costume, you look exactly like Pattern!" or "Awesome cryptic!" And I learned what Pattern is called in the local translation of the book (it basically is the equivalent of a mold).
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| At the convention with two cosplayers from a fun show I watch, Delicious in Dungeon. |
One thing about my costume is that the pressboard wasn't super strong and ended up breaking by the end of the convention, so I can't wear it again as is. Additionally, I sweat a lot, which got the board wet, which weakened it. I plan on remaking it, possibly reusing the foam but most likely not. This time I'll go with particleboard, I think.
All in all, great cheap costume, instantly recognizable for someone who knows the series, and easy and quick to make as well.
Highly recommended.
Do you dress up? What did you dress up as? Have you ever heard of Brandon Sanderson, and if so, have you read any of his books? If so, would you have recognized my costume?